His fierce flow sparks on Bhelize Dont Cry, Uzi Freyja’s first album of 12 techno rap tracks. The amazing, brilliantly mastered cocktail of this essay immediately places this Paris-based group at the forefront of the African hip hop scene. It’s the phenomenon that everyone has been chasing since 2019. And he hadn’t released a record yet. But his crazy energy was already igniting the biggest French festivals.
Behind the stage name of Uzi Freyja, hides Kelly Rose. Born in Cameroon into a family of musicians, she grew up in gospel. Arriving in France at the age of 14, the discovery of Eminem’s gangsta rap marked her forever. Having understood that words are a formidable weapon, the artist with an immigrant background begins to spread her rap in the streets of Nantes where she meets the electrorock producer Stuntman5. From this meeting, his open and original, even unclassifiable, style was born, mixing trap, jungle, but also punk and soul.
The song Talk Sick is about the curvy, black and queer artist that she is. And more generally of all women. At 27, Kelly Rose has the art of putting together engaging songs with danceable rhythms. Feminism, the LGBT community, family and also her African roots, these struggles a young woman defends with her outspokenness in Bhelize Dont Cry. And above all, it is about Bhelize. Her inner child whom she guides in a world on IV drip to free herself from the clichés imposed by society, to stand up against ambient racism and generalized misogynistic stupidity, notably on the angry title, Medusa
It must be said that the Cameroonian Kelly Rose is embodied in the two facets of her artist name. Uzi, designates a machine gun, symbol of a burst of crude and targeted words. And Freyja, Nordic goddess of femininity, archetype of the warrior shrouded in primal sensuality. That’s Uzi Freyja: a stunning creature, both sharp and enveloping. Like his music.
With this eclectic first record, Uzi Freyja addresses both the head and the legs: telling the absurdity of our time while celebrating it with very angry beats
Uzi Freyja in concert on February 26, 2025 at La Maroquinerie in Paris. And March 13 in Brussels.
